


Jealousy is a Dangerous Thing

by anxious_soul



Series: Bad Things Happen [9]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood and Injury, But Not Much, Canon Divergence - Post-Avengers (2012), Engaged Steve Rogers/Tony Stark, Established Steve Rogers/Tony Stark, Fluff and Angst, Hurt Tony Stark, Hurt/Comfort, I'm Bad At Summaries, I'm Bad At Tagging, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Jealousy, Knife to throat, M/M, Non-Graphic Violence, Obsessive Behavior, Post-Avengers (2012), Protective Steve Rogers, Steve Rogers Feels, Threats of Violence, Tony Stark Feels, in the one sentence reference to Howard, more fluff than hurt tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:20:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28359972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anxious_soul/pseuds/anxious_soul
Summary: In which, Tony and Steve are engaged and meeting with Rhodey for lunch, but they don't get very far with their plans, an obsessed fan gets in the way and attacks.
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Series: Bad Things Happen [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1889176
Comments: 14
Kudos: 160





	Jealousy is a Dangerous Thing

**Author's Note:**

> So the last fic wasn't my best, however, despite this being written up only a few days later, I am super happy with it and actually enjoyed writing this one (I think with the last fic, I had taken too many breaks between writing it that it became a chore more than a hobby, which ultimately ruined it). I hope everyone likes this one!
> 
> Okay, I wasn't planning on doing this either with this series, but I ended up combining two different lettered prompts because it worked out better that way.
> 
> Also I was quite happy with my collage this time; just thought I'd clarify on two images and what they symbolise: the white rose symbolises Tony's white shirt that gets stained with blood and the rose signifies their love for each other. The green rose with thorns and green lipstick is the woman and her jealousy.
> 
> Bad Things Happen Prompt(s): Jealousy/Envy, Knife to Throat.

Ever since she had been a little girl and had first heard about the brave and patriotic Captain America, who was once a ‘little guy’, she had fallen in love. She had all the merchandise, watched everything and anything Captain America related and fell into fantasies of him still being alive and them getting married, having 2.3 golden-haired children with a white picket fence -the whole _American Dream._

However, despite her obsession, she knew it could and would never be. The man was dead after all; he’d heroically gone down in the Artic with a HYDRA bomber headed for New York. Still, a girl could dream and wish. They do say dreams can come true.

It was during the press release given at Stark Tower after the alien invasion in New York where the Avengers were introduced to the city. At first, there were many who didn’t believe that the blond man in the red, white and blue suit was the real Captain America, however, it didn’t take long before their minds were changed.

With the revelation that Captain America had been revived, she searched for any and all clips she could find on the internet of the blond hero during the invasion. Watching with hearts in her eyes as he saved people; she closed her eyes at the sound of his voice. All while imagining herself with him. Her obsession only grew.

**——LINE BREAK——**

When he was a little boy, Tony adored Captain America, he sought to be just like the hero his dad obsessed over. His room was filled with merchandise, some that weren’t even available to the public, and his wardrobe was filled with red, white and blue clothes.

When he was a teenager, Tony’s idolisation of Captain America faded into jealousy and hatred as he realised his father would never have time for him, would never love him nor accept him. And it was all because of Captain _Fucking_ America. 

When he was in his thirties and actually met Captain America, well his childhood adoration came storming back only to be destroyed when he realised Steve didn’t like him. Post-invasion, however, the two found themselves growing closer and getting on better and better with each passing day at Stark turned Avengers Tower.

  
Their relationship began with hatred, but quickly they became friends and it wasn’t long before their emotions grew stronger and stronger. Steve made the first move, catching Tony off guard one day in his workshop, the kiss was only the first of many.

**——LINE BREAK——**

“I can’t believe we’re engaged,” Tony whispered the morning after Steve had proposed to him, he had his arm in the air as he gazed at his ring that had contained a small trail of sapphires; Steve had a matching ring only with a trail of rubies. A shifting on his right had Tony turning to see Steve laying on his side with a gentle smile.

“I’m just glad you said yes,”  


“I’d have been a fool not to,” Steve chuckled at Tony’s words as the genius placed a kiss on his lips. 

“You know we have to tell the others,” Steve murmured into Tony’s lips, who pulled away with a dramatic sigh, 

“And Pepper and Rhodey. Happy probably already knows if his grin last night, when he dropped us home, was any sign.”  


“Most likely,”  


“You take the team, while I take my overprotective parents?”  


“We’ll tell them together,” Steve told him with a chuckle.

**——LINE BREAK——**

The team took it well -too well to the point where Tony was nursing his ribs from being hugged almost to death by everyone hours after. Pepper and Rhodey, however, took the news to mean that Steve needed to be warned against hurting Tony (much like the pair did when the two began to date). But once their additional shovel talks were over, Pepper told Tony she would deal with the press and have an announcement made. 

Tony tried to hide his worry about the public knowing, but Steve (and the others) could easily see through his mask and comforted him. Telling him everything would be okay. 

Of course, that then meant it wasn’t. 

**——LINE BREAK——**

She was infuriated. Not only was Captain America engaged, he was engaged to the worst person in the world. Tony Stark. The playboy, philanthropist, who was a selfish and vile man that did _not_ deserve her hero’s heart. She knew she had to do _something_ the second she saw the news. Tony didn’t deserve to become Mrs Captain America (because he was bound to be the woman in the relationship), she did. She sent death threat after death threat but nothing changed. 

**——LINE BREAK——**

The week that followed the announcement of their engagement to the public was filled with a lot of positivity; many congratulated them on social media -other celebrities and the general public. There was, however, about five percent of the public that hated their announcement; they were vile and cruel with threats and general hateful messages published online. A lot of them were aimed at Tony, thinking Steve deserved better, few were at Steve, thinking Tony could do better, and a small portion was from the bigots in the world who saw homosexuality as a sin or downright disgusting. 

Tony nor Steve paid any attention to the hatred, after all in comparison there was more positivity, however, the people who ran the social media pages flagged down one particular woman who was far more forceful. One Jessica Cooper had sent numerous messages on each of Tony’s social media pages; each one getting more threatening and violent than the last. It had even gotten to the point where she emailed Stark Industries with threats aimed at him. So she had to be flagged (and blocked and reported on the accounts) in case she proved to be a person who followed through with their words. 

**——LINE BREAK——**

One day about three months after the engagement and consequent announcement, a woman walked into the reception of Avengers Tower. She smiled politely at the receptionist after asking to meet with Tony. 

“I’m sorry, ma’am, but Mr Stark has requested that no meetings are to be made this week,” Chloe, the receptionist, answered apologetically before a happy smile took its place on her face, “he’s busy with wedding preparations.”

“Please,” the woman bit out looking angrier at Chloe’s words, “I _really_ need to talk to him. It’s an emergency.”

“I’m sorry. However, I can direct you to someone else who might be able to assist. Though, I would need to know a bit about the situation before I arrange anything.”

Before the woman could answer, her blue eyes spotted two people walking out of the elevator; one was headed her way whilst the blond man engaged in conversation with a man in uniform who was waiting nearby. The receptionist saw the demonic glint in the woman’s eyes but before she could sound the alarm, she was by Tony with a knife to his throat. The genius barely had time to react and gulped as the sharp blade tickled his Adam’s apple. The room fell silent at the sight of Tony being held to the chest of a slightly shorter woman with a knife braced to slice. 

**——LINE BREAK——**

The engaged couple had wandered down to the bottom floor of the tower to meet Rhodey and go out for lunch to talk about the wedding and catch up.

“You go to Rhodey, I’m just going to check to see if Chloe has any messages for me,” Tony murmured to Steve as they exited the elevators.

“Okay, don’t be too long, we've got reservations,” Steve replied pressing a kiss to his lips before walking over to Rhodey, who was standing with an amused smirk a few feet away.

Walking over to the receptionist’s desk with a kind smile, he failed to notice the woman storming his way. It happened too quickly, he felt himself being dragged against the woman’s chest and a sleek blade pressed roughly against his throat. His whiskey eyes widened and met with Steve’s, who was walking over with his hands raised as if to show he was unarmed; Rhodey was behind him doing the same. Both looked worried and the room was silent as onlookers watched in horror.

**——LINE BREAK——**

“Ma’am, please, just put the knife down. Whatever the problem is, we can talk it out,” Steve placated kindly, 

“No!” She shouted pushing the knife into Tony’s skin enough to make him hiss through his mouth, “no, _he_ is the problem!” 

“Ma’am-“  


“My name is _Jessica_ ,” she interrupted,

“Okay Jessica, please put the knife down. We can talk about this,” Steve repeated, she stayed silent, “why do you think Tony is a problem?”

“Because he’s marrying you! He’s in the way and needs to be gone!”  


“In the way of what?"  


“Of _us._ Of you and me. We could have this, but no, Stark got in the way and got with you instead,” everyone seemed shocked about her exclamation, Steve included. 

“I -Jessica, I’m flattered, but this…” he gestured around her, “is not helping your case. This is going against everything I believe in. You’re hurting someone I love,” perhaps he shouldn’t have used that particular word because her face reddened with rage and the knife pressed down harder. Crimson began to leak down Tony’s pale throat, staining the collar of his white shirt. 

“No, no no!” She screamed, “you’re supposed to be with me! I watched everything you were in, I had all your merchandise and everything you-related. I should be Mrs Captain America, not him! I’m the one who loves you!”

“And yet, everything you just said proves otherwise,” Steve said soothingly, confusing Jessica, which caused her grip to loosen ever so slightly.

“What?”

“You don’t _love_ me. You may claim to, but you don’t. You love _Captain America_ but not me.”  


“But… I do love you. I love Captain America, of course, that means I love you.”

“You don’t love the man beneath the mask and suit. The messy, shellshocked man that I am -sorry, it’s PTSD nowadays, isn’t it?” He added briefly, “I wake up some nights, frozen solid despite running hot. I can’t move, I can’t breathe. I wake thinking I’m still in the ice. Startling noises freak me out and on occasion, I completely lose it. I shout. I cry. I scream. I’m a mess of a man and a soldier. And you love the hero, not the man.” His words were enough to get her to relent her grip on Tony, who quickly pulled away, a hasty hand pressed against his bleeding throat; it was nothing serious, but it would need to be cleaned and bandaged. Jessica saw that he’d pulled away and reached out with an angry scream to stab him, but security and Rhodey took the opportunity to restrain her. Unfortunately, it wasn’t quick enough to stop the knife from slicing Tony’s arm. He _would_ be needing stitches for that one.

**——LINE BREAK——**

Thankfully, the blond didn’t take his husband-to-be to the hospital, instead, they went back into the elevator, leaving Rhodey and the security to deal with Jessica as they headed to the infirmary floor to get Tony’s arm stitched up. Steve had his arm wrapped protectively around Tony, but he was silent and oddly enough, so was Tony. 

“What happened?” Bruce asked as the pair walked in, he had heard that Tony was hurt through JARVIS and had made his way to the small infirmary the building had. The others were possibly on their way unless they were helping downstairs with the situation. None of the Avengers had been able to go down beforehand when it happened due to Tony’s safety measures in the building. His safety measures had been put in place out of mild paranoia that someone might somehow be able to come in shooting and harming his staff. The measures he put in place were to lock off the floors the second a threat had been found in the building; it was the most he could do as it ensured that the attacker wouldn’t be able to get to anyone else as well as ensure that the staff wouldn’t be able to accidentally walk into the crossfire. 

“Some crazy lady with an obsessive disorder came in and attacked me because she loves Captain America,” Tony answered with a hiss as Bruce cleaned his wounds. Steve filled the doctor in a bit more than Tony had, whilst the genius whimpered and winced in pain every so often.

**——LINE BREAK——**

“Have to say, I’m a bit disappointed that none of my fans are jealous of you and haven't held knives to your throat,” Tony says later that night jokingly in the hopes of getting Steve to crack his first smile since the incident. It works and the blond man finally pulls his eyes away from the slightly reddened bandages around Tony’s arm and neck to look into golden eyes. “Are you okay?”

“I should be asking you that,” Steve replied with a snort of sorts,

“She didn’t get me too bad, Capsicle, I’ll live."  


“But you might _not_ have.”

“But I did. Look at me -Steve, look at me. This wasn’t your fault. You can’t help it if people find your heroics incredible and fall in love with you. Their actions are theirs alone. Don’t let this guilt drag you down, it isn’t healthy. You can’t feel guilty for something that wasn’t your fault even if the evil-doer does it because of you. You in no way endorsed her actions. Did you tell her to do it?”  


“No,”

“Did you tell her to take a knife to my throat?”  


“No.”  


“And did you tell her to be obsessed with you to the point of harming another?”  


“Absolutely not.”

“There we go then,” Tony mumbled with a smile as the chaos of the day finally hit him and drained him of all energy, “it wasn’t your fault whatsoever. Ugh since when was I the wise one in this relationship,” he joked as he settled down to sleep.

“It is a bit unusual and uncharacteristic of you,” Steve joked back as he leaned down to kiss Tony, “thank you,” he whispered, “I love you.”  


“I love you too, Steve. G’night.”

“Goodnight Tones.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Next up is... 'L'
> 
> I said this last time, but I doubt I'll have anything out before the new year as I seriously need to focus on my assessments and stop procrastinating! Also, I promise I will eventually get round to replying to comments; I always read them when I get the notification in my inbox and I appreciate every single one of them -I'm just godawful and replying when I receive them!
> 
> [My tumblr](https://anxious---soul.tumblr.com) feel free to say hi or something!  
> 
> 
> Anyway,  
> Thank you for reading,  
> Hope you enjoyed this,  
> Please leave a kudos and a comment  
> 


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